


The Guardian

by IMLRG



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adults Helping Minors Placed in Unfortunate Situations, Alternate Universe - The United States of America, Biblical Allusions (Abrahamic Religions), Biblical Scripture References (Abrahamic Religions), Dealing with Emotions in Unhealthy Ways, Detailed Descriptions of Supernatural Medical Practices, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Frank Discussions of Nudity, Gen, Graphic Discussions of Injuries, Hurt/Comfort, Magic is Not the Same as SOUL Usage, Minors Placed in Unfortunate Situations, Overly Dramatic Writing, Panic Attacks, Realistic Depictions of Neurological Disorders, Writing in the Perspective of a Child
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-10-04 07:01:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20466947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IMLRG/pseuds/IMLRG
Summary: After a sudden earthquake followed by a bout of torrential rain, 28 year old Alan White wakes up to a broken car, making him have to take the bus. While on his way home, he hears a heartbroken noise behind an old abandoned house. What he discovers there will completely change the way he lives his life. Is Alan willing to defy his government, his community, and his own history to nurture two very broken little children? Is it even possible for Humans and Monsters to have a future together?Based loosely off of the Kindertale AU.





	1. Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Kindertale AU](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/515075) by Multiple Authors (as far as I can tell). 
**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Subjects of Our Story.

It rained.

Sodden, cold, utterly lost, limping, breathing heavily, the child struggled underneath the sky blackened like coal, burdened down by his cloak, his passenger on his shoulders, his past, his future.

It rained.

The child stumbled, scraping his knee. He whimpered as he felt a chunk of knee break off of his wound. Grinding his teeth together, he bit the inside of his mouth with a chipped incisor, the acrid taste of his life's dust vying for the attention of his tase buds against the aftertaste of the bile of his stress-induced retching when they first landed in this Angel-forsaken labyrinth of too-open ceilings and too-big buildings.

It rained.

The child rose, slowly, legs shaking, and continued his march towards safety. The child would be marching forever. There was no safety. There was no solace in this place, not for him, not for either of them. He knew this, but he kept walking. To stop was to die, to move was to live.

He did not want to die.

He would.

But he did not want to.

It rained.

He heard her whimper. She writhed against his back, almost making the child lose hold of his precious passenger. He wasn't very much bigger than she was, honestly, but there was no choice. The child had to carry her. She couldn't walk in her state. She couldn't even crawl with her leg like it was now. She had finally fallen into a restless, fitful sleep on his back, and he wasn't about to try and wake her.

Somewhere in the depths of his fear-addled mind, he remembered hearing that sleep was good for healing a fractured SOUL. So, he let her sleep, pressing onwards, afraid that soon, his burden would lighten, and he would be carrying nothing but dust and torn clothing and the memory of the girl who would be his Lifebond when they grew. If they grew.

They wouldn't grow anymore. The child was sure of this now.

It rained.

The child stumbled on regardless, heedless of the hard black-stone-tar-rock under his paws, heedless of the clear shards of the foul smelling flask he had stepped on embedded in his footpaw, heedless of the winds that tried to drive him to his knees and drove him to his scattering place, to their scattering places.

It rained.

Soon, he saw a building. It was overlarge, dark, crumbling like his HoPe, like her HoPe. This building wasn't much different than many of the other buildings in this area. There was no reason to go here. No reason at all.

Still, the child stumbled towards it. Before he realized it (had he teleported? Or had he just blacked out for a moment?) they were there.

The rain crashed down on a putrified metal can, beating out an erratic song with no chords and no notes and no tone and no hope. The rain slammed down on the old rotten wooden fence above them, stopping the rain from hitting them, but only in some places. Some places was better than all places. But there had to be a better place?

There was no better place.

The child sank down to his knees, then onto his stomach, then he turned around, and he held the girl to his chest, and if he sobbed and cried and lamented to the cruel heavens, then the girl paid him no heed, and he finally, blissfully, mercifully, lost what little grip he had on his consciousness, and darkness rushed to meet him like an old friend, whispering promises of comfort and healing and an end to his tribulation, but first, all he had to do was let go, surrender, just let that HoPe of his tick past the point of no return, it wouldn't hurt, he would be safe, and free, and he wouldn't have to suffer any more...

It rained.

But then, the rain stopped.


	2. Stranger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our Main Character.

Alan got off of the bus.

"Thanks for the ride, sir, have yourself a good one!"

The bus driver nodded and waved, saying in a gravelly voice, "Try to stay dry out there!"

Alan laughed once, saying, "I'll try, but no guarantees!"

Alan popped his black umbrella open. It was an old fashioned umbrella, black, with a wooden U for a handle, coming to a sturdy metal point. One of the spokes of the umbrella had come separated from its canvas, poking out and threatening the eyes of anyone who wasn't paying attention and also happened to be a 6 foot 7 tower of a man.

Alan said "HEH!" very loudly while at the same time popping his stomach out. The bus rolled away.

Alan lifted the hood of his grey hoodie to cover his exceptionally curly brown/blonde hair, literally the only thing that he had inherited from his African Great Great Great Grandmother on his mother's side. At least, he thinks she was black. She might have looked more Native American judging by the pictures he'd seen, and she had apparently claimed to be full blood Cherokee, but he trusted his ancestry report that said "2% African" in that regard. Every male on his Mom's side had the same nappy hair, after all.

Alan said "HEH! and popped his stomach out, then shook his head, causing his cheeks to flap and make a clicking sound, then he nodded his head until his teeth beat together exactly twice in a measured rhythm. He did this movement three more times, and then he lifted his umbrella over his head and began walking home, performing the movements but not the vocalizations at irregular intervals. There was nobody around to disturb, and he had to keep it suppressed while on the bus for the common courtesy of the other passengers, so now they had to come out. Every so often, he let out another "HEH!" or otherwise a not-as-loud-but-still-loud "ee-EEEE!"

Alan walked down Cherry Lane Road on his way home. Alan looked on in distaste at the surrounding city block ("HEH!"). This area looked SO bad. The city council had tried to build a bunch of houses and apartments down this road, but for reasons that Alan neither knew about nor particularly cared about, the project ran out of money, and it left a bunch of half-built pieces of building material everywhere. There were a few houses that did get finished, but they never sold, and nobody maintained the buildings, causing them to fall into greater and greater disrepair. ("HEH!") The result was an area that genuinely looked like a slum. ("HEH!") It was a stain on an otherwise quiet suburb. (HEH! HEH! HEH! ee-EEEE! HEH! HEH! YAAAAAAH!")

"Geez, it's acting up today!" Alan said to nobody. "Probably weather related. HEH!"

Alan shrugged to himself and continued walking.

"Either that, or magnetic field or something related. There was that "MASSIVE" earthquake last night. I've been on edge ever since... Though I'm not the only one though. HEH!" Alan continued to say to nobody. And it was true; Alan could tell that last night's tectonic activity had spooked a lot of people. Earthquakes were fairly common in Ebbot City, but not as violent as the one that had occurred last night. Alan had, of course, slept through it. Well, rather, he vaguely recalls waking up at some point last night due to something weird, but he rolled over and went back to sleep. That said, it was all that anyone talked about on his news feed when he woke up this morning. And of course, the more people talked about it, the more it was blown out of proportion... ("HEH!")

It WAS a big one though. It was big enough to knock some of his dishes off of the counter this morning, at least. That had been "fun" to clean up. ("HEH!")

And then, to top it all off, this massive, sudden rain storm. Apparently none of the meteorologists had predicted this happening today, as his weather app STILL indicated that it was 83 degrees and partly cloudy today. ("EEE!") Typical.

Alan continued walking down the sidewalk, took several deep breaths, and began to hum. Music usually kept his vocalizations away at least, and he needed to keep it together before he could decompress in the privacy of his own home. He could almost feel the call of a hot shower, and he quickened his pace. ("HEH!")

Then, the rain lulled for a moment, and Alan heard a noise that made him completely stop in his tracks.

He knew that sound. Any adult would know that sound.

That was the sound of a child sobbing.

Alan's head snapped towards the noise, but it had stopped. Regardless, his keen ears identified it as coming from across the street. Alan, without missing a beat, stepped off the sidewalk and urgently jogged across the street, barely remembering to look for incoming vehicles. There was hardly any traffic in this area, but he still liked to make sure. No need to wind up dead.

Alan hopped the curb and walked into the "driveway" of a dilapidated house, crumbling from months of neglect, and paused to listen again. The wind and rain noises were making it harder to hear, as the rain had picked up, but Alan's ears, trained since he was three to pick up the slightest variation of pitch and tone, barely caught the sounds of whimpering and shivering coming from behind the house. Moving cautiously, so as not to spook the owner of the voice, Alan padded around the house.

Alan reached into his hoodie and grasped the handle of his knife just to ensure himself that it was still there. One could never be too careful in these parts of town. He was huge, and nobody wanted to mess with him as a result, but if somebody was hurting a kid behind this house or something... Well. Alan wanted to make sure that he would be well equipped to dispatch such a "person" if necessary.

Alan poked his head around the corner of the house. There was nobody behind the house that he could see: just old junk and one of those huge metal waste bins half filled with reeking water and other compost in the middle of a field of mud. Alan stepped out as softly as he could, work boots muted by the rain, which poured down in a fever pitch.

Suddenly, the sky opened up directly on top of him, almost driving him to his knees with the force of the wind and rain. Alan pressed himself against the broken building to try and shield himself from the unwelcome downpour, and all he could do was watch as sheets of rain galloped across the muddy mire that made up the rest of the lot behind the was-once-a-house. Then, as quickly as it came, the sobbing cloud causing the downpour closed its crying eyes and let up to a lighter rain. It was only then that Alan's heart sank into the pits of his stomach; he heard a too-small voice, raw with emotion and pain, cry out into the darkness.

"P-please... Gorey... D-don't leave me a-alone here... Please..."

Alan's feet moved before his head had caught up to him, and as he passed a metal trash can with a rotten fence on top of it touching the building, he stopped dead. His eyes grew wide, and all he could do was stare. Because there, lying underneath a fence and beside a trash can, was a little girl.

At least, he THOUGHT she was a girl. It was hard to tell, as she was covered from head to toe in white fur, darkened and sopping wet from the rain and covered in dirt as it was. She wore a torn pink-and-white striped blouse and a battered skirt with torn-up leggings, equally as bedraggled and dirty as their wearer, so that was what led Alan to believe that this creature was a girl. Alan took in floppy ears, small, just-budding horns on her head, and tiny paw pads, before coming to the gruesome realization that one such pad was completely twisted the wrong way and flaking off deceptively large amounts of a white powder smelling unpleasantly of hair burning in acid. The girl hadn't yet noticed him, as she was hunched over another small figure, shaking it futilely with paw-like hands, shivering and sobbing and crying and being utterly miserable and alone.

Alan had no words for a long, long second, the type of second that seems to last for years. The kind of second that passes for a person whose life would never be the same again.

Because there, lying underneath a fence and beside a trash can, in the pouring rain, was a little girl.

And this little girl was a Monster.


	3. Lifesaver

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our Main Character meets the Subjects of Our Story and saves their lives.

There, behind a broken house, in the pouring rain, Alan stood and gaped as a Monster, an honest-to-God, real life monster, shook the fallen body of what looked like another monster laying on the ground. Then, all at once, Alan's thoughts caught up with his body, and they began running into overdrive.

Monsters were illegal. Like, shoot-on-sight, kill immediately and with great prejudice, could and would be gunned down on the sidewalk by the cops if caught in a non-dead monster's general vicinity illegal. The government even treated MAGES better than Monsters. Mages! Humans with the ability to control their SOUL, who were literally systematically hunted down and slaughtered wholesale if they weren't registered with the government, were treated better than Monsters were! Because at least Mages had rights... Well, they had the same rights afforded to a cow, but having the rights of a livestock animal is better than having no rights at all.

That said, Alan wasn't on board with that line of thought. Like, at all. Many of the people that he knew were more apathetic to "the biggest and most evil threat to all humankind" than not. And Alan was even more "extreme," in the "if any government official knew his true thoughts on Monsterkind, he would disappear and never be heard from again" camp. And aside from all that, even if Alan was "uncommon" in that regard... This was, very clearly, a kid.

Alan knew a lot about Monsters. More than many other people, and somewhat more than any average member of his Government, really. It was one of his three Important Self-Appointed Jobs that he took great pride in. So, he knew a lot about Monsters, and traditional Monster conventions, having researched them from old records, outdated illegal books, and places on the internet that he was never supposed to see.

Monsters were an exceptionally varied lot, with differences in size, body type, and even states of existance abound, and as a result, there was no way to tell a child of one species from a child of another species just by looking at them. To solve this problem, Monsters traditionally dressed their kids in striped clothing, to both single to other Monsters to treat them differently than they would an adult, and to save the actual adults from being patronized and embarrassed by being treated like a kid. Which is why it hurt him to see this stripes-wearing little goat Monster crying and shaking another unconscious monster.

This was a kid, obviously very hurt, lost, and alone. And here was Alan, a capable adult, in a prime position to do something about that.

The decision to break the law had never been more easy in his entire life.

Alan kneeled down with a huff, cutting his admittedly intimidating height in half. This immediately drew the attention of the crying Monster, who snapped her head up and saw Alan with blurry, tear-stained vision. The same eyes grew impossibly more wide, and then filled with fear. Alan was about to say something, anything, but before he could utter a word, the girl let out a shrill scream and attacked him.

Alan felt a wave of heat wash over his body as small flames leapt unbidden from the girl's hands and began to sear towards him with the intent to burn and harm. Alan, for his part, merely crossed his arms in front of him in an X pattern, fists closed, directly in front of his face. The fire washed over him, but barely even singed the hair on his arms as the fire broke over his defensive posture.

The girl gaped as she saw that her attack had done nothing, then cried out, this time with pain, as she put weight onto her mangled footpaw. She collapsed to the ground, before cowering away from Alan, whimpering "Please, please don't kill me, I'm sorry, pease, have MERCY, please, please-"

"Woah, woah... Peace, little one, peace... I'm not going to hurt you." Alan said, voice as low and as calming as he could make it, watching with pity as the girl scrambled into the corner of her little makeshift shelter, utterly scared beyond her wits. Alan could only watch as the girl collided with the back wall of the broken house behind her, hyperventilating as she curled into as small of a ball as she could. This left the sodden bundle the girl had been shaking, and Alan then got his first clear look at the monster that the girl had been trying to wake up.

The boy (for that's what he was) was the exact same species of Monster as the girl, down to the horns growing in on his head, though he was bigger than the girl, and looked older, but not by much at all. He was dressed in a green-and-white striped shirt with short sleeves and brown breeches, all in similar condition to his companion's clothing (that is to say, filthy, torn, and bedraggled.) He had been covered in what once had been a black cape with a purple fur inside. The cape in question was now pretty much destroyed, filled with holes, torn irreparably, in an incredibly sorry state. Alan reached out and gathered up the child to his chest, removing the cloak from him in the process. When uncovered, Alan noticed with horror that the child was riddled with cuts and bruises. Even more alarming was the fact that the child's outline was beginning to blur, and Alan realized that the strong smell of monster dust had been coming from him rather than the girl's leg. Alan was almost certain that the boy in his arms had Fallen Down.

So, Alan CHECKed the boy.

Alan closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, and then opened them with a snap and a small PING! His eyes, which once were blue-grey, now glowed a faint YELLOW color. Alan saw the following information when he looked at the boy:

**MONSTER CHILD (MALE)**

**HP: 1 / 6**

**ATK: 0**

**DEF: 0**

**"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HEAL HIM YOU IDIOT!!!"**

Alan needed no more prompting. Alan's eyes closed again, and he muttered a prayer.

"Heavenly Father, give me strength. Help me to heal this poor little one's wounds, and grant him the strength to live on. Protect him, and protect me as well. Amen."

Even as he prayed, Alan's hands glowed a bright, emerald GREEN, and the boy seemed to solidify somewhat. Alan reopened his eyes.

CHECK.

**MONSTER CHILD (MALE)**

**HP: 6 / 6**

**ATK: 0**

**DEF: 0**

**"The danger hasn't yet passed. His max HP should be MUCH higher than this. He needs shelter quickly."**

"Yeah, no joke..." Alan muttered to himself, shifting his umbrella to cover the child while shifting his still glowing eyes to the monster huddled in the corner.

CHECK.

**MONSTER CHILD (FEMALE)**

**HP: 3 / 11**

**ATK: 0**

**DEF: 9**

**"She's going to lose that leg soon. But If you touch her, she'll cause more harm to herself. Be gentle."**

Alan let out a sigh, before plopping down to a sitting position, still grasping the little male to his chest. He could feel the water from the child's fur soaking through his hoodie, but at this point, he didn't particularly care. Alan felt the little monster unconsciously huddle closer to him before violently shivering, and Alan decided then and there that he was going to have to do something risky. So, he began to concentrate.

A GREEN shell suddenly popped out of nothingness and surrounded the three. The ever present noise of the rain stopped abruptly, as if someone had just closed a window, the only audible noise being the faint pattering of the rain, the distressed whimpering of the girl, and the even breathing of the human. Alan flattened his hand as if he were waving, and after a moment, a GREEN aura formed around his hand. Alan began to gently press his hand against the child in his arms. The aura made an indent in the child's fur, and Alan began to brush the side of his hand against the child, starting from his shoulder and moving down to his paws. As he did so, water sloughed out of the boy's darkened fur as if it was pushed by a particularly GREEN comb. The temperature in the little bubble began to noticeably rise as Alan worked on removing the water from the boy.

Then, Alan began to hum.

It was soft, at first. The girl's strangled cries were louder than his music at first, but soon enough, as he removed the boy's shirt and began to remove the water from his chest fur, her whimpering quieted and his song only grew. The song was melodic, gentle, and comforting, the man's warm voice matching the warmth of the shell that he had created. It was a song of his own invention, a song without lyrics, a song that he hoped communicate what his words could not to the little girl, that she was safe, and that he would not hurt her, nor her companion.

Alan got wet and dirty working on making the boy in his arms more comfortable, but it was worth it when the boy stopped shaking so much and Alan CHECKed him again.

**MONSTER CHILD (MALE)**

**HP: 6 / 7**

**ATK: 0**

**DEF: 0**

**"The danger hasn't yet passed... But this is helping."**

Alan's hands glowed GREEN again, topping off the boy's new HP total. Alan heard a soft gasp as he did so, and looking up, startled a little as he realized that the girl had unburied her head from her knees and was now staring at him as if he had grown a second head, had declared that he was the new King of Scotland, and began doing cartwheels up and down the pavement. Her eyes also glowed, and Alan realized that she was also CHECKing him.

CHECK.

**MONSTER CHILD (FEMALE)**

**HP: 3 / 11**

**ATK: 0**

**DEF: 5**

**"Her worldview is currently crashing down all around her. Now might be a good time to heal her."**

"Geez, Help Text, I'm not going to do that without her permission!..." Alan softly admonished the not-at-all sapient text that popped up when he CHECKed someone. The girl jumped at the man's voice, and she again hid her head in her legs. However, after a little time, one eye peeked out, and Alan heard a tiny, tiny voice eke out.

"W-why are you helping him?"

Alan, still working on getting the boy as dry as he could (a tall order given how weighed down with water he was) answered in the most gentle voice that he possibly could muster from his enormous frame.

"Well. He was hurt pretty bad. I didn't like how hurt he was. So, I wanted to heal him, to make him feel better."

The girl seemed to ponder this information for a minute.

"B... But, y-you're a human... Aren't you?..." She finally decided to ask uncertainly.

"Well, yes. I am a human. And you two are Monsters." Alan said simply.

The girl looked totally lost now.

"B... But. Um."

Alan merely hummed, encouraging the girl to continue.

"I... Um, I thought that... Humans hate Monsters?" The girl asked.

Alan sighed deeply, shaking his head in dismay.

"SOME humans hate Monsters. No... That's not entirely true. I'd say that... A lot Humans hate Monsters. But not all of them."

Alan grimaced as he recalled the travesties committed against Monsters in the past by Humans.

"I think that's wrong." The human muttered, more to himself than the girl.

The little girl gave the human a confused stare, and Alan clarified.

"I think it's wrong that a lot Humans hate Monsters. I think that it's wrong that Humans treat Monsters so badly. Heck. I think it's wrong that Humans don't treat Monsters with the same respect as other Humans. There's a Rule in the Bib... a book that I read really often, that says 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' That means that people should be nice to others if they want others to be nice to them back. Does that make sense?"

The girl merely continued to stare at the Human, totally at a loss for words. Then, almost imperceptibly, the girl nodded.

Alan had finished with the boy's upper body at this point, and had to move on to his lower body.

"I'm gonna need to take his pants off so I can get the water off his legs, they're weighed down and cold too." Alan stated to the girl, who continued to watch with rapt attention.

"Are you a doctor?" The little girl asked after a beat, seeming to get a little bit of courage back now that she knew she wasn't in any immediate danger.

Alan thought for a minute.

"Well, I'm not a doctor... Well, not really, but I am very, very good at healing, and I do a lot of things that a doctor does. And anyway, I need to get his HoPe back up, and removing the water is helping with that, so I need to take off his pants."

The girl thought for a minute.

"Um, Auntie Amara says that we shouldn't take off our pants in front of others, 'less, um, we need help taking a bath or going potty, or, um, if we need help changing, or if we're at the doctor's house. And only the doctor can touch us on our privates. That's what Auntie Amara said."

Alan couldn't help but to smile at the girl's innocence.

"Mmm. That is all totally true. But, I'm drying him off... So, it's kinda like I'm helping him take a bath, but in reverse? And I'm not going to touch anybody's privates. I promise."

The girl thought for a minute.

"Oh. Okay."

And that was that, apparently.

As Alan began working to dry off the boy's legs, he spoke out again.

"My name is Alan, by the way."

The girl said nothing.

"Once I'm done here, I'll put his pants back on, and then, if you want me to, I can help dry you off too."

The girl thought for a minute.

"I don't wanna take my skirt off."

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I won't even touch you if you don't want me to, okay?" Alan said gently, hoping very hard that she would at least let him heal her broken leg.

The girl thought for a minute.

"Okay."

Alan had moved on to the boy's other leg by this point.

"I can also heal you, if you want. You're missing a lot of HoPE right now, and your leg..." Alan trailed off.

The girl thought for a munute.

"W-will it hurt?" The girl asked in an insecure tone.

Alan paused for a brief moment.

"*sigh* I'm not gonna lie to you, little one. It probably will hurt, yes. Usually, it doesn't hurt, but because your leg is like it is, it's most likely going to hurt. I can make it hurt less though."

The girl whimpered.

"I-is my leg gonna Dust?"

"Oh gosh, sweetie, no, no no! Your leg won't Dust!"

"B-but when I CHECK myself, it keeps sayin' it's gonna Dust!"

"Your CHECK is scared right now, just like you are, and that's okay. But I'll make absolutely sure that your leg won't Dust, all right?"

Alan finished drying the boy off as much as he could, and after wringing out the pair of sodden breeches and placing them back onto the boy, Alan removed his hoodie, revealing a dirty blue pocketed Carhartt t-shirt, and he wrapped the little boy inside the grey hoodie. Only then did Alan lay his head down onto his lap, and he reached out his hand towards the girl. The girl, tears in her eyes, warily glanced from Alan's offered hand to his eyes, judging them, asking if this was real, if she was safe, if once she took his hand he would take everything that he said back and Dust her in a cruel twist of fate.

Alan merely smiled.

The girl stared.

The girl took his hand.


	4. Travellers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our Main Character and the Subjects of Our Story travel to the Main Location.

The girl was, impossibly, more weighed down with water than the boy was, especially along her back. Alan had set the girl on his lap with her back facing him, and gently, ever so gently, he combed through her wet, sopping head fur, feeling her quake under his touch, sending pulses of GREEN energy to heal the bumps and bruises he came across.

Soon, her head was as dry as could be expected under the circumstances, and Alan gently said, "That's better. If you want, I can get your arms next." The girl, without much hesitation, began trying to remove her sodden, dirty blouse, having issues divesting herself from the fabric sticking to her body. Alan, without much hesitation, gently helped her out of the ruined article of clothing.

Alan could see fresh wounds marring the snowy landscape that made up the little Monster's back, and he immediately began healing them. The girl seemed to relax more and more into the adult's hold as he worked to remove the hurt and the uncomfortable water that burdened her, either too exhausted to be embarrassed by her state of undress, or too young to care about modesty in the first place. Alan didn't know how old this girl was, but judging by her voice and the way she talked, and how hurt she was, Alan guessed that it was probably a combination of both.

Alan turned the girl around to face him, hiding a grimace as her injured leg flopped uselessly around, causing the little girl to whimper. Alan immediately sent a pulse of GREEN throughout her body, trying to chase down and stop the offending pain from tormenting the girl, with only limited success. Alan began to mentally prepare himself for the process that needed to happen to deal with this traumatized limb.

Alan worked quickly yet gently, one hand divesting dirty water from his patient's torso, the other petting her head with his opposite hand. Her fur was almost impossibly soft, even though it was wet and dirty. Alan couldn't imagine what it might be like dry and clean. The girl's eyes were half-closed already, and she couldn't help but to lean into the gentle touches. Alan was pretty sure that he could put the girl to sleep at this rate. Perhaps that was a good idea, but he doubted it would last, at least until he could get that leg immobilized and set in place.

Soon, there was much less water than fur, and Alan hummed in his contentment with the smoothness the healing process had provided so far, knowing that smoothness was now at an end. Alan gave the girl a gentle smile before speaking up. "Okay, sweetie. That's done. Let's get you covered back up, then I'm gonna go ahead and begin fixing that leg for ya, okay?"

The girl's eyes opened fully again, and she subtly cocked her head to the side, giving Alan a confused look.

"You didn't do that with Gorey."

Alan sent a confused look right back at the girl.

"Is his leg hurt too?" Alan asked.

The girl grew even more confused.

"Huh? No, his leg's okay."

'Huh?' indeed.

"Then, what did I not do with Gorey?" Alan asked.

The girl huffed in irritation.

"He's not wearing a shirt! I don't wanna either! It's gross and dirty!"

Oh.

"Oh. Okay, that's fine."

Definitely too young to understand modesty then. Noted.

Alan's mind went back to the task at hand, and he rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. The girl winced at this noise, but Alan spoke before she could ask what had happened.

"Allllll right, sweetie. So, here's what's about to happen. I'm gonna use some CYAN to coat your leg so it stops hurting. You're gonna feel a kind of weird tingly feeling, but it shouldn't hurt at all. If it does start hurting, let me know, okay?"

The girl nervously nodded her head.

Alan smiled gently at the girl, and reached out and began scratching her behind her budding horns.

"You're being so brave, little one."

The girl closed her eyes and leaned into Alan's touch.

"Mmm... Don' feel brave. 'm scared..." She admitted tearfully.

Alan hummed in response.

"It's okay to be scared, sweetie. Brave people still get scared all the time. Brave people do the right thing anyway, even though they're scared. That's what makes them brave."

The girl seemed to process this for a while. Alan gave her the time she needed.

"Mmm..."

"Okay."

The girl began to try to straiten her hurt leg, and Alan, as gently as he possibly could, stopped her from doing so.

"Not yet, sweetie, not yet... I'm gonna get it numbed up first, THEN we can try and move it, okay?"

The girl nodded, eyes wide and scared. Alan gave her another reassuring smile, before letting the GREEN aura around his hand fade, and the YELLOW glow in his eyes stop entirely, returning them to their normal grey-blue.

Concentrating, Alan willed CYAN into the center of the palm of his left hand, having to devote an inordinate amount of concentration to get it right. PATIENCE was one of Alan's lesser traits, and as a result, this type of Effect was very difficult for him to use. It also didn't help that he hadn't had to do this for awhile, AND he was maintaining the GREEN shell surrounding the trio at the same time. The shell in question wavered and flickered, but didn't drop. At least once this part was done and the CYAN was applied, the girl's ambient energy would keep the Effect going, and Alan wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

The temperature around Alan's hand dropped noticeably, and a CYAN colored substance began to coalesce into his hand like some sort of ectoplasm. A GREEN glove formed around the man's right hand, and he took two glove-coated fingers and dipped them into the CYAN gel.

"...Okay Kiddo. I'm gonna put it on. You ready?"

The girl noticeably steeled herself. Alan took his fingers and began rubbing the CYAN gel into the girl's injured leg on top of her destroyed leggings. The CYAN Effect travelled through the fabric and attached itself directly to the girl's limb, putting it in a sort of stasis. The goal was to remove the pain and (hopefully) freeze any bacteria or nastiness in the process, making for a much easier cleaning and healing of the limb later.

The girl's breath caught as she felt something practically arctic touch her wounded leg. As Alan had promised, it didn't hurt, not really, but it tingled like crazy, making her feel itchy and uncomfortable. The girl couldn't help but to squirm as her leg began to go numb. Alan worked quickly, knowing how uncomfortable this Effect could be, having endured it in the past.

"Just hold tight, kiddo, I'm almost done here... Just a few more seconds... Aaaaaaaaaaaaand... Done!"

The tingling sensation stopped as abruptly as it came, and the girl frowned, squirming a little more, as she looked down. She couldn't see anything different past her clothes, but she certainly felt something, so she huffed in annoyance before lifting herself partially off Alan's lap and began struggling out of her torn leggings. Alan dismissed the Effects on his hands and assisted her once he realized what she was doing, and soon enough, the destroyed garment laid in a heap with the other dirty clothing, and the girl could see what had happened.

It looked like someone had dipped the girl's entire leg in a uniform coating of a slimy CYAN oobeleck, which glowed gently and beat in time with her SOUL, making a wavy, pulsing pattern. The girl realized with a start that the consistent, burning pain that had plagued her since she got her injury had stopped. In its place was a dull, throbbing ache, but that was much better in comparison. Still, the application of the CYAN Effect had been exceedingly uncomfortable.

"That was weird! I didn't like that..." The girl pouted.

Alan couldn't help but to chuckle at the little girl's puffed-out cheeks and less-than-pleased frown.

"I'm sorry, little one, but that part's over now. How do you feel?"

The girl's annoyance only lasted for a few seconds, and she timidly reached out to try and touch her leg. Alan saw this and gently took her paw, moving it away from her leg.

"Try not to touch that, okay? It'll make your hand numb too."

The girl merely hummed her consent. Then, she toyed with her skirt nervously, and very, very softly, said, "T-thank you, Mr. Alan. It feels better now."

Alan smiled gently.

"Awesome. You're very welcome, little one. We can try and move it now, if you want."

The girl, in lieu of answering, began to try to straiten her injured limb out. Alan delicately took the leg in both hands, one at the knee, one at the ankle, and applied a GREEN healing Effect to both joints, causing the CYAN and GREEN to swirl around one another without mixing. The resulting sensation was more tingling and coldness, but not so much pain. Soon, the limb was completely straitened out, and Alan began to set the broken limb in place with practiced hands.

It was true: he was no doctor. Not officially, anyway. That said, his grasp of GREEN was second to none in the Enclave, and as the resident GREEN Master, he had set many a broken limb before this. Not Monster limbs, of course, but the girl's leg was close enough to a Human limb for his experience to help succeed where others might fail.

The girl was an absolute trooper throughout the entire process, whimpering lightly as even the combined CYAN and GREEN couldn't stop all the pain, but still enduring. Alan murmured comfort and praise in equal measure as he worked, certain that if he could see her SOUL right now, it would be glowing PURPLE like a little sun.

It took time, much more time than Alan was comfortable with spending, but this needed to be done now, and this needed to be done correctly. Fortunately, both COLORS cooperated to make the job much more manageable, and soon, the limb stopped hemorrhaging Dust. He would have to get a better look at the internal damage later, but for now, it would hold fine. Now, Alan needed to splint the limb.

Alan drew the exhausted girl into a gentle hug, murmuring praises into the top of her soft head, and she allowed him to do so. The ordeal that she had just suffered through had clearly sapped what little energy she had left. Alan gently began rocking her back and forth, voice low and soft, and soon enough, comforted by the decreased pain and the gentle hugs, the girl slipped into an exhausted sleep. Alan waited a while, ensuring that she would not awaken again, and then he began to concentrate.

Alan focused in on the BLUE effect he wanted to call out. Alan snapped his finger, and a soft, high-pitched BRRRRING! sounded out, surrounding the girl with an incredibly weak BLUE glow. Alan then hooked his fingers into a claw-like shape before slowly closing his hand and moving his now closed fist down towards the numbed limb. The aura around the girl abruptly brightened, then moved down and into itself until it only covered her leg. The aura was a low-powered gravity effect that gently pushed on the leg evenly in every direction, thus immobilizing it.

After accomplishing his task, Alan delicately combed the rest of the water out of the girl's fur on her uninjured leg. Then, after he had done as much as he thought he could, he removed his own shirt, revealing a too-fat stomach and chest covered in a large amount of thin, dark hair. Alan very carefully began wrapping the girl in the fabric, shrouding her in a scent combination of Bearglove Old Spice, rain wet fabric, and the man's own slightly spicy scent. It was time to leave. Alan was getting tired, and it was imperative that the kids get a warm, safe environment as soon as possible.

If anybody saw him carrying a Monster, all three of them would be killed, regardless if they made it all the way home or not. So, given the fact that Alan had nothing to hide the children with other than the clothes on his back, Alan would endure the weather and do just that. A shirtless man carrying two bundles under a low umbrella could be explained away: a jacketed man carrying two Monsters under a low umbrella could not.

Alan finished bundling the girl up in his shirt, then gathered both children up to his bare chest. Alan covered the little male Monster (Gorey, apparently,) with his hoodie's namesake, totally concealing the boy from the outside world. Alan then grabbed all the rest of the children's soaked and ruined clothing and added it to the already bulging bundle. It wouldn't do to leave evidence that anyone had been back here. Alan hoped that this was enough to protect the children's sleeping forms from the elements and any passersby that might be nosy enough to pay attention to him. Alan was especially careful around the girl's leg, careful not to jostle or bump the mangled limb.

Alan reached over and grabbed his discarded, still-open umbrella, tapped it against the pavement to dry the underside of it, and covered himself and his two passengers with the black canvas. He was still a very unusual sight, a topless, 6 foot 7 giant of a man carrying a large sodden bundle of clothing and balancing an umbrella on his bare shoulders, but hopefully, people wouldn't ask questions. Alan certainly had seen stranger things happening in Ebbot City, and if there was one thing he could always rely on in this city, it was the callousness of passersby.

Finally, Alan rose to his full height, his GREEN colored shell morphing to cover him. Alan took a deep breath, muttered a quick prayer to not be seen, but for God's will to be done, and then dropped the shell. Immediately, the full force of the rain and wind blew into Alan, almost taking his breath away. GEEZ, that was cold!!!

Alan felt both children shrink reflexively into his chest even further, trying to gather what warmth they could. Fortunately for Alan, the two little bundles he held close emitted a disproportionate amount of heat for their sizes, causing Alan to cradle them even closer to try to ward off the offending daggers of cold.

Alan looked around his environment, looking for anything unusual. He needed to be alert now. This would probably be the most dangerous five minute walk he would ever take in his life. He wasn't about to wander heedlessly into an ambush. Alan steeled himself began walking, swiftly, but as evenly as he could for the sake of his injured passengers.

As Alan rounded the corner of the house and stepped out onto the (mercifully empty) sidewalk, he couldn't help but to shiver as an arctic wind sliced through his unclothed torso like a knife through still-warm butter. Alan pressed on as the clouds above shed their bitter tears onto the heads of those below, and the cold north wind drove these tears into the body of a half-naked outlaw and his two little fugitives. Alan turned his body so that his back faced the wind as best as he could, and he moved, quickly, quietly, alert for the smallest movement or the tiniest creature.

Alan walked onwards, each passing second seeming like hours, days, months and years. The world slowed, and Alan could see every detail, each bump and crack in the pavement below, each chip and gouge in the paint of the houses he passed, each drop of warmth-stealing, pain-bringing water breaking over his exposed skin. But still, the streets remained utterly desolate. As time passed, Alan began to wonder if the city had been deserted, if some sort of Rapture had occurred, and the only living beings around were him and the two innocent children he protected in his arms. This was... Unusual, to say the least. He expected to see SOMEBODY out here. But, there was nothing, and there was no one. He was alone.

He was safe.

Gratitude and love poured out of Alan's heart. His prayer had been heard. Somehow, in the depths of his SOUL, he knew that he would make it home. He had been scared, scared that he would be caught, scared that someone would see him, stop him, would identify what he was doing, would murder him. Would murder the children. But, he knew, somehow, that he would be safe.

It was a miracle.

Despite himself, despite the rain and the cold making it difficult, Alan began to sing. His voice was strong and beautiful from natural talent and years of training, yet it was almost completely drowned out by the torrential downpour. That didn't matter to him, though.

Alan sang songs of joy, of thanksgiving, songs of gratefulness, songs expressing his desire to serve. He sang of the miracle he'd encountered, and of his desire to never let this chance go to waste. He sang the old, ancient words that those before him had said: 'Here I am, send me!'

And then, as his voice crescendoed to a high point, Alan turned a corner, and finally, he saw his house. He had made it.

He was home.


	5. Sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One Subject of Our Story awakens in the Main Location and meets The Protagonist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Panic Attacks

The first thing that Asgore realized was that he was warm.

The second thing that Asgore realized was that he hurt all over.

Asgore moaned and tried to move to a side of his body that didn't hurt so bad, only to find that he couldn't: he wasn't able to move without using a lot of energy, whatever was keeping him warm was also keeping him pinned to the soft thing he was lying on, and even if none of that was going on, something else was clamped onto his left side, and that something wasn't letting go anytime soon.

As time went by, Asgore became more aware of what was around him, and one by one, his other senses began to start up, kinda like the computer his father had that he never let him use.

First, his sense of hearing returned, and he heard an odd blowing sound coming from above him, like the wind in Snowdin passing through a big metal thing. He kinda remembered hearing something like this on a class trip to The Core. He also heard a soft whining machine somewhere, and underneath that, the deep, nice sound of a voice singing a song he couldn't quite make out.

Next, Asgore's smell returned, and he smelled the faint smell of must mixed with the smell of rain, like he was in Grampa Gerson's shop in Waterfall, except the air was somehow... Better. More alive. Moving instead of trapped. He must still be on the Surface. So all that mess before hadn't been a dream after all...

After that, Asgore's sense of taste returned, and right away he wished that it hadn't. His morning breath, his own Dust, and the faint hint of throw-up from when he lost his lunch earlier mixed together to make him really rather sick to his stomach. He must not have slept very long if he could still taste all this. He REALLY wished he had slept longer...

Finally, Asgore's sight returned, and he could see a soft light coming from the other side of his closed eyelids. It took a huge amount of strength to open his eyes, much more strength than it should have taken, but soon enough, Asgore forced his eyes open. He couldn't see anything at first: not because the room was dark or anything, but because his vision was blurry and weird, making his stomach sick even worse than the taste in his mouth did.

Asgore let out another moan and slammed his eyes shut again as the world rocked and spun underneath him. Asgore felt his stomach heave, and he probably would have thrown up again if there was anything in his stomach. He wasn't trying THAT again, at least for awhile.

After a bit of time passed, Asgore felt the thing clamped onto his right side shift, and he heard a tiny noise that sounded really, really familiar to his ears. Asgore tried opening one eye this time, which took less effort than both of them. He opened it slowly, and once he could see, he saw a ceiling that looked like it was coated with little pieces of white popcorn, lit by a warm glow coming from behind him. Then, with a whole lot of strength, Asgore turned his head to the left.

Once the world stopped spinning again, Asgore saw the rest of the room that he was in. It was a pretty big room, with white walls and a brown, fuzzy floor, like the whole floor was covered in one big rug. The walls weren't decorated with anything that he could see, but there was a black thing that had a bunch of drawers in it sitting in the corner, a wooden chair right next to the bed he was laying on, and behind that, what looked like a small table with a glass top. The table had a lamp on it, but nothing else.

Finally, Asgore's eyes landed right next to him, and covered with a thick pink blanket, Asgore saw two small arms wrapped around his neck in a limp hug, and he saw the top of a very familiar head. Tori. She was safe. She hadn't Dusted. He hadn't failed in his promise to keep her safe.

Asgore suddenly noticed that tears were trying to escape his eyes, and he wanted nothing more than to grab the girl next to him and hug her with all of his strength. However, that was the problem; his strength was so low right now that he couldn't actually do any of that stuff. He settled for closing his teary eye and moving his head until his cheek touched Toriel's head, and he snuggled deeper into her hug, which he didn't think woke her up, but it made her tighten her arms around him.

He had been so scared. More scared than he had ever been in his entire life. After that... Flower thing had attacked him and all of his friends and family, and he had somehow got thrown onto the Surface, totally separated from anyone he knew, he had almost...

He didn't want to think about this right now. If he thought about this, he would start crying, and if he started crying, he was afraid that he wouldn't ever stop. So, just like he was taught to, Asgore took all of his worry, all of his fear, and all of his bad thoughts, he locked them all in a neat little box, and he shoved it into the back of his mind. He'd deal with all that later.

For now, he was fine, and he was gonna STAY fine. Period.

Asgore cuddled Tori and began trying to relax. Tori was here, and she was safe. Everything was gonna be okay. He was still really, REALLY tired... So he would try to sleep some more. Yeah... That sounded like a good idea... Sleep... Sleep healed everything, or that's what nurse always said... Sleep sounded like a good idea right now... It... It was...

Zzzzzzzzz...

\------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Asgore woke up next, he felt that Tori was still there next to him, but she wasn't hugging him anymore. She was on his right side instead of his left, so she must have moved. Lucky. Asgore wished he could move...

Suddenly, Asgore heard a door open, and he felt a huge energy enter the room that definitely wasn't Tori. The boy heard large, heavy steps coming towards him, and he heard something sit down right next to him, causing whatever the thing it was sitting on (it had to be the chair he'd seen) to groan a little. He heard the sound of plastic hitting against glass, and he heard something take a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh of air.

Before Asgore could react, he felt a rough-feeling hand very, very gently touch his forehead and stay there for a few seconds. Then, the hand moved towards his horns and began gently rubbing in between them, and he felt a healing Effect spreading into his body, stopping some of the hurts and pains he still had. Asgore couldn't help but to lean into the soft touch, letting out a really dry sounding moan. The rubbing stopped, and the boy heard a deep, kinda nasally, almost silly sounding voice, soft and gentle.

"Hey, kiddo. You awake?"

Asgore tried to say that he was, but he could only make a really gross moaning sound. The voice released his head, and he heard the sound of plastic scraping on glass.

"I'll take that as a yes. Don't try to talk yet buddy, here. Drink this."

Asgore felt a small tube being pressed up to his lips, and after sucking a little on it, he found that the tube put cool, wet water into his mouth. The boy sucked down the water quickly, not really realizing how thirsty he had been until just then.

"Nice and easy kiddo. Don't make yourself sick." Said the gentle voice. Asgore tried to slow down, but he couldn't help himself: this water had to have been sent from Above, it was the best he'd ever tasted!

After he drank until he wasn't thirsty any more, Asgore tried opening his eyes again, to see if this kind voice had a face. Perhaps there were Monsters on the Surface after all? Monsters had gone missing without a trace before, and HE was on the Surface... Maybe this was even another Boss Monster, like him!

As the boy opened his eyes, the room swam, like it had all the other times, but it was easier to deal with now that he knew it was coming. It still stunk, though. Asgore looked around once his vision stopped being dumb, and he saw that the nice voice did have a face after all.

The first thing Asgore noticed was that this person had no hair covering their light-colored skin. Well, kinda; the only place they had hair was on top of their head, and they had a lot of it! There was also a little hair growing in a beard like Father's, except this person's beard was a lot shorter, and only covered their chin and around their mouth. Asgore remembered that Nurse had said that this type of beard was called a "goat-tee."

The person's brown-with-a-teeny-amount-of-blonde hair was super curly and was combed so that their hair was as big as possible. They had eyes that were a mix of grey and blue, and they had dark rings under each eye. They had small eyebrows and a nose that was pointed, and lips that were turned up in a gentle smile. They had a round jaw and a brow that stuck out just a little.

This person was also really big. Father was the biggest person that Asgore had ever seen, but Father could probably talk to this person without bending down very much at all. They were easily twice as big as Asgore himself, probably even bigger than that! Asgore had the funny thought that this person probably gave great hugs.

The person was kinda fat like Father too, but their arms weren't as big or muscle-y as Father's. This person wore a plain grey t-shirt (meaning this person was an adult) with some teeny tiny red writing on the left chest. Asgore couldn't read what the writing said without getting dizzy, so he didn't read it. The adult also wore some comfy-looking pants that had green-black squares on it. They were holding a pink cup with a green tube coming out of the top of it, probably what he had water out of a minute ago.

Asgore wondered what kind of creature this adult was. Humans were supposed to look an awful lot like this, but... If this was a Human, then Asgore probably wouldn't be alive right now. But, this person looked too much like what he had been told a Human looked like to NOT be one. Asgore coughed a little and tried his voice again.

"H... Hello, zir... Thank you for the water..." There. It still sounded funny, but that was his voice. If this really this WAS a human, then they were still an adult, and he always had to be polite to adults, even if they were Human. That's what Nurse always told him, anyway.

The person's smile grew, and they reached out a huge hand and began scratching Asgore's head behind his horns, which he really liked a lot.

"No problem at all, little one. I'm glad you're awake now. With all those injuries you had, I was afraid you would sleep for weeks! You were only out for about a day, don't worry." The adult said quickly, cutting off the sinking feeling in his tummy that Asgore began to feel before it really began. Asgore sighed in relief.

"Oh. Okay, that's good... Um... Was that you healing me just now, too?..." Asgore asked nervously, not sure if he was allowed to ask questions, as he hadn't been given permission to do that yet, but this adult looked nice, and he didn't think they'd mind too much.

And thankfully, no punishment or yelling happened, and the person merely nodded and made a yes noise.

"Mmm-hmm! You had a lot of bumps and bruises, so I've been healing you a lot. Speaking of, how are you feeling right now? Any weirdness going on I can help with?"

Asgore thought about that for a bit. It was still kinda really hard to move, though that was getting easier as he woke up more, and he was still sore all over, and moving his head too fast made him super dizzy. So, he told the adult all of that. Asgore decided that even if this person was a Human, that they couldn't be all bad if they treated him like this. The adult nodded, the look on their face changing to a look that told Asgore that this person was thinking.

"Hmm... The weakness and soreness is pretty normal, but the dizziness isn't so much. Here, let's sit you up, and I'll take a look at your head, okay? You might have gotten banged up a little worse than I thought..." The adult scooted a bit closer and slipped one hand under Asgore's back, holding out their other hand for Asgore to grab. "Let's try to go slow, okay? I'll let you do most of the work, I'm just here for support."

Asgore made a yes sound, then reached out and grabbed the adult's warm hand, which was so much bigger than his, golly. He tried to sit up with all of his strength, but he only got a little ways off the bed before he had to stop, both due to being too weak, and due to the fact that he got too dizzy. He closed his eyes and fell back onto the adult's hand, whining as the bed rocked underneath him like a boat. The adult rubbed their long fingers into Asgore's back very gently, and a cool burst of GREEN was sent through his head with the other hand.

"Eeeeeeasy there kiddo, you're okay. I'm gonna set you back down, okay? That was a good try."

Asgore was lowered back onto the bed, which continued to rock for a minute before quieting down (thank goodness, that was awful!) Asgore re-opened his eyes nervously, expecting the adult to be looking angrily at him, or worse, looking disappointed with him. However, to Asgore's surprise, neither of those things happened. In fact, the adult looked a little worried, and Asgore could tell right away that they had a lot of empuh... Impuh... That thing where you feel what another person feels.

"I'm sorry you're feeling so nasty, kiddo... Did my healing Effect help your dizziness go away?" Asgore thought for a second, and then made a no sound.

"Mmm-mmm. It felt good, but I was still dizzy."

The adult hummed and scratched their goat-tee, thinking real hard.

"I see... Well, in that case, I'm fairly certain it's not a deficiency of GREEN..." The adult said to themselves more than to Asgore. He didn't really understand what that d-word was that the adult just used, but the way they had said it made it sound like it wasn't a good thing.

While they were thinking, the adult reached out and started scratching Asgore's head again, which he leaned into without really having to think about it. It felt good, and it kinda made him feel like this adult cared about him, which made him a little less scared. He was still in a weird place that he didn't know where it was, he was still away from Father and Nurse, and he still felt bad... But the fact that this adult was taking care of him so he didn't have to take care of himself made him feel a little better about things.

<strike>He was so tired of taking care of himself all the time</strike>

"All right, bud, I'm gonna do a little test, okay? I think I might know what's going on, but I'm gonna have to CALL your SOUL out to do it. Is that okay?"

Asgore's eyes snapped opened and widened, and his first thought was to shout a big NO! He didn't want to CALL his SOUL for a stranger! That wasn't right! Your SOUL was super-extra private, even more private than your privates, and shouldn't be CALLed for anybody but a person you trusted with your life!

Well, that, and a doctor.

Asgore suddenly had a funny thought. WAS this adult a doctor? They had really strong GREEN Effects, after all, and they used big words, and they made him feel better already...

"Um... A... Are you a doctor, Zir?"

The adult looked confused for a minute, before grinning real wide and laughing, making Asgore super confused. He hadn't said anything funny, had he?...

"Heh... Sorry kiddo... I didn't mean to laugh at you... It's just that your friend actually asked me the same question. I'll give you the same answer that I gave to her: I'm not officially a doctor, like, I didn't go to school or anything, but I've done so many things that a doctor does, and my SOUL is so strong, that I might as well be one. I act like a doctor to... Well, to people who don't want to go to the doctor because they're afraid that they'll get in trouble. Does that answer your question?"

Asgore had to think about that one for a minute. A doctor had to go to doctor school to become a doctor. It was against the law to say that you were a doctor if you didn't do that. That's what Father said. So, since the adult said that they didn't go to doctor school, that meant they weren't a doctor. But still, if they weren't lying (and Asgore didn't think that they were,) and they did all the things that a doctor did, didn't that make them a doctor?...

Asgore looked over at Tori. He couldn't really see her leg, which made him sick just looking at it because it was all bent and twisted the wrong way, but she did look better, and Asgore even sensed a BLUE Effect coming from her, which he knew from 'sperience meant that her leg was probably healing. If the leg was better, then...

The adult seemed to guess what he was thinking, because they gently reached over and lifted the comfy pink blanket off of Tori to help him see. Tori looked kinda silly, because she was wearing a blue shirt that was waaaaaaaaay too big for her, and it wasn't even striped! Though, Asgore guessed that the adult already knew that Tori was a kid...

Anyway, the adult lifted the shirt off of Tori's legs, and Asgore winced, not wanting to see how bad it was, but kinda wanting to at the same time... Only to see that her leg WAS better! Well, kinda, it still looked really hurt, and Asgore could still smell a little Dust coming from it, but it wasn't going the wrong way anymore, and the BLUE Effect looked exactly like the one that Asgore had to have that one time when he slipped off of a rock in Waterfall and broke his arm. Only a doctor could do that...

Asgore made up his mind. This adult was a doctor. They had to be, if they could do all this. And even if they weren't a doctor, they helped Tori like a doctor did, and that was good enough for him. Asgore was tired of looking everywhere slowly and being dizzy, and if he had to CALL his SOUL to stop that, then... Even though he didn't trust this adult with his SOUL... He did trust a doctor. He would try to CALL his SOUL out.

Asgore could feel himself frowning as he reached out to his SOUL and told it to come. The boy expected it to just come right out , like it had every other time he'd CALLed his SOUL, but it didn't this time. That had never happened before... The adult seemed to realize what he was doing and gently grabbed Asgore on the shoulder, stopping him from CALLing his SOUL.

"I'll take that as a yes, then. Try not to use too much Magic right now, okay kiddo? Your body needs all the Magic it can get to keep healing you as well as it has been. Is it okay if I CALL it myself? I promise I'm not going to actually touch it or anything... I just need to look at it."

Asgore's eyes got wide again. The adult wanted to CALL his SOUL out themselves?... Well, that wasn't THAT weird, not for doctors at least. Doctors always wanted to draw out his SOUL for some reason, even when he could do it himself. And this adult WAS a doctor after all, Asgore supposed...

Asgore made a yes sound. The adult smiled gently at him, and he got another head scratch.

"Thank you for trusting me, buddy. I promise, I'll be quick. I just need to pop a quick CHECK on it, and we'll be good to go!"

Oh. That wouldn't be so bad. Doctors usually poked and prodded his SOUL with their special Bullets to figure out what was wrong. If this adult could just use a CHECK, then that was a lot better. Asgore went ahead and made another yes sound.

Asgore felt something he couldn't see press all around his SOUL, and he felt it being drawn out. Asgore was grateful that the adult was being gentle: instead of feeling cold hands, like with his normal doctor, or a little bit of pain, like when Father was punishing him, he felt like he was being wrapped up in a warm hug. Soon enough, his SOUL was out for the world to see. Asgore looked at it, but then let out a shocked GASP!

The little WHITE heart that made up who he was was blurry along the edges!!!

Asgore could only stare. That... This wasn't normal. This had never, EVER happened before. SOULs were supposed to be solid, not like... This! What was wrong with him?! Was he gonna die?!

Asgore tore his gaze away from his <strike>broken</strike> SOUL and stared at the adult, too scared to even say anything. The adult's eyes were both glowing a bright YELLOW color, and they were muttering something under their breath. They kept looking for what seemed like forever, but finally, their eyes faded back to their normal color, and they nodded once. Their eyes turned to meet Asgore's, and they began to smile.

"All right, kiddo. I think that I... Kiddo? What's the matter? Are you okay?"

Asgore's breathing got really fast all of the sudden, and he felt water start to run down his face, and he turned back to look at his SOUL again, hoping, praying that he had just dreamed that, that his eyes had gone blurry again, that he had imagined his SOUL being like that, but no, it was real, it was fuzzy, it was falling apart, he was gonna die and nobody would know where he went not even his family because they were in the Underground and he was on the Surface and Tori would have to tell his family he was dead but he couldn't die here not with Tori here but he was blurry and broken andohdearAngelwhatwashappeningwhywashebrokenSOMEONEANYONEPLEASEHELPIDONTWANTTODIEIDONTWANTTODIEI-

"Gorey!"

Wh... Huh? Had someone said his name? What was going on, who said-

"It's okay, Gorey!... It's gonna be okay!... Shh, shh, it's all good buddy, just breathe, okay?... You're good... I've gotcha... Juuuuuuuust breathe..."

Asgore latched on to this calm voice, and wondered why they were saying that. Was he not breathing?...

Oh. No, now that he thought about it, he guessed that he wasn't. He was more... Gasping than breathing. Golly. That wasn't very good, was it? He'd better start trying to do something about that.

...It was really hard to stop gasping right now, though. This was weird. He'd never had trouble breathing before...

"Thaaaaaat's it, Gorey. That's it. You're doing great."

Oh. He guessed that he WAS doing it. He didn't feel like he was, but he must have been doing SOMETHING right. Good. That was good.

"Great job, Gorey, you're doing great. Deeeeep breaths, buddy, you got it... You got it... I'm proud of you, kiddo, you're doing so good..."

"Proud of him?" For what? For breathing? That was silly, he should be breathing okay in the first place! But... The voice said he was doing good. Maybe the voice was proud of him for doing good? Yeah, that made sense. He WAS doing good.

He was okay.

He was going to be okay...

Soon enough, Asgore started coming to his senses. He felt, to use a naughty word, like poop. He was super tired, he still hurt all over, his head was KILLING him now, and he was out of breath, like he had just run a lap through the entire Underground. He didn't feel very good at all.

Asgore realized over time that he wasn't lying down anymore, and that he was being held up by two big, strong arms, who were squeezing him tight enough for him to feel safe, but not tight enough to hurt. Asgore realized with a jolt that he was squeezing back as tightly as he could. He knew that probably had to hurt, but Asgore couldn't bring himself to let go, and whatever he was squeezing wasn't complaining, so he kept holding on.

He also realized that his face was super wet. He'd been crying again, hadn't he? Asgore hoped that Father didn't find out, he might get punished again if Father found out he'd been crying like a baby again...

But wait. Father COULDN'T find out. Asgore wasn't even in the Underground. That was silly. Asgore was on the Surface.

With Tori.

With a broken SOUL...

All at once, everything came flooding back to Asgore, and the full weight of everything came crashing down on to him. And it was too much. It was way, way too much for him to handle. And so, Asgore did the only thing that he could do when faced with too much.

He cried.

Big, ugly sobs escaped from his chest and came out of his mouth, and Asgore felt tears pouring down his face. The boy pawed at his eyes, trying to get back SOME control of himself, like Father always made him do, but that quickly stopped when the thing that held him squeezed him closer still, and he felt the ticklish feeling of lips on his head, and he heard a voice that was quickly growing familiar to Asgore whisper to him.

"It's okay, Gorey. You can cry if you need to. I've got you, kiddo... I've got you..."

These words, this permission to cry that Asgore hadn't known how badly he needed until just now, broke something inside of him, and wave after wave of worry and fear and bad thoughts and pain all poured out of him all at once like all the water in Waterfall. Asgore cried harder than he could remember crying before, his whole body working together to drain all the nasty muck and gunk that he had crammed into the back of his mind for so long. It hurt, (oh Angel did it hurt!,) but the hurt soon went away, and the bad all slowly came out, and there was finally more room for good.

And the whole time he cried, he was held.

Asgore didn't really know how long he cried. Time wasn't working so good for him right now. But soon, after what felt like hours and hours, Asgore had no more tears in his entire body, and he just laid there in the strong arms, holding a handful of soft shirt, just... Done with things. Asgore just wanted to sleep, he wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep forever and ever... And so, he did.

Asgore closed his eyes, and he felt himself go completely limp. Asgore felt a soft hand stroking his head, the same hand that hadn't stopped petting him since he was held, and he felt himself being lowered back down onto the soft bed below him. He felt one hand moving the covers over him, tucking him in. He felt the other hand wipe his face under both eyes. He felt a kiss, feather-light, on the top of his head. He heard a voice mumble something that he was just too tired to make out.

Then, darkness folded around him, and he didn't know anything else for awhile.


End file.
